


Something That Was Missing

by wonderlandiscrumbling



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Apologies, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, M/M, Reconciliation, season five
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-14
Updated: 2018-10-14
Packaged: 2019-08-02 00:26:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16294814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderlandiscrumbling/pseuds/wonderlandiscrumbling
Summary: Oswald loathes nothing more than drawing attention to his leg and Ed's constant curiosity about everything.





	Something That Was Missing

“That brace is new.” Ed commented pointing towards the brace that Oswald wore on his leg.

Oswald paused closing his eyes and counting to ten, a tight-lipped smile pulling at his lips as he opened his eyes again to look at Ed who was sitting on the sofa staring at the leather straps and metal rods.

“Yes, it is. You know that’s what I’ve always loved about you, how quick you are to notice things.” 

Ed sat quietly, brow furrowed as he looked from his leg up to his face. “I’m sensing bitter sarcasm.” He commented mostly to himself as he pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose with his index finger.

Oswald sighed, he choked down the urge to strangle him. “You would be guessing right.”

“I’ve never seen you wear a leg brace before, why are you wearing one now?”

He raked his mind trying to remember if there was ever a time in the four years he’d known Ed where he enjoyed his incessive questions especially when they touched on topics that were just the slightest bit sensitive. 

“Well what few doctors we even have left alive in this Hell hole said it might help, so far it’s just an aggravation.” He said as he rubbed at his knee, he winced feeling sharp pain.

Ed got up and made his way over to him, he placed a hand against his bicep and Oswald momentarily tensed under his touch, but Ed didn’t seem to notice. 

“Is it getting worse?”

“Define worse.”

The other man didn’t respond, he simply lead Oswald over to the couch sitting down with him. He considered snapping at him and telling him he didn’t need him pulling his wannabe doctor act, but frankly he was too tired and sore to care.

“Can I see it, your leg I mean.” 

Oswald stared at him, considered just leaving, finding Zsasz, and collecting a few debts in the form of decapitations of clients late on payments. “Why?”

“It’s been awhile since I’ve seen it, I want to see if it’s gotten worse….Maybe I could help.” He offered, voice soft, an awkward edge to his words.

“Why do you care so much?” Oswald asked, he couldn’t remember the last time Ed actually cared, or if he ever did care.

The question seemed to fall on deaf ears or perhaps it was too difficult to summon a coherent answer. 

“Fine, you can look at it.” He relented, Ed smiled to himself taking this as some form of a minor victory in life.

Ed unbuckled the top leather strap then the lower one, he carefully removed the brace laying it on the floor. Oswald held his breath as he watched Ed roll up the leg of his pants revealing inch by inch of horribly scarred skin, he quickly glanced away choosing instead to stare intently at the marbled floor. 

“Is the scarring worse?”

He shrugged, “I-I don’t know, I don’t exactly look at it.” He responded, a defensive tone to his voice he didn’t quite mean.

He flinched when Ed touched his fingers to his leg, he could just faintly feel his touch, the warm pressure of his fingers. He tensed when he felt Ed touching his knotted knee.

“Sorry.” He muttered seeming to realize his friend was uncomfortable.

Oswald looked at him, kept his focus on his face refusing to look at his own leg. “It’s fine, I just….The last person who saw my leg was Sofia, I just…Never mind.” He said shaking his head.

He wanted to tell him so many things like how humiliated he’d felt when Sofia mocked him for crying in front of her, for trusting her after allowing her to see and touch a part of his body that bothered him on several levels. He wanted to tell him that this very moment right now was a sign of trust, a show of weakness, and a hint that there was a strong inkling of love.

Ed glanced up at him. “Why did she see it?” 

“It was….It was bothering me and she um she massaged it.”

Ed continued to stare at him, hand still pressed against his calf. He tried to read the other man’s expression, swore he saw some sort of hurt or possible jealousy in his eyes before Ed averted his gaze again, the subject now dropped.

“How long has your leg been like this?”

Oswald shrugged, he focused on Ed’s facial features, how delicate and strong his features were. He longed to touch his jawline, to trace his fingers along his high cheekbones, he remembered the last time he tried to reach out and touch his face, hands bound together and freezing rain hitting against his flushed skin. 

“It’s been like this as long as I can remember….Older I get the worse it hurts and the more I hate it.” He paused for a moment, he smiled sadly as a memory came to him. “When I was a kid during the summer I’d worn shorts to school, terrible school with absolutely no air conditioning….I remember the other kids in my class heckling me when they saw my leg, they being so intelligent decided to start calling me Freddy Krueger.” 

“Kids are rather cruel.” Ed commented as he gently stroked his fingers along Oswald’s leg.

“It put me off wearing shorts, also made it impossible for me to not think about my leg and how it looks.” He sighed. “I don’t get why it isn’t bothering you and I still don’t get why you even want to be looking at it right now.”

The other man was quiet for some time before answering. “It just doesn’t bother me and besides it’s part of you, I don’t see any part of you the way you see yourself.”

The way he spoke was soft and genuine, the words leaving Oswald incapable of speaking. Oswald grabbed his leg pulling it off Ed’s lap and setting his foot back down on the floor. “You know I never have a damn clue who you are half the time.” 

He remembered first meeting him how lanky and awkward he was, his clothes ill fitting, and how he had no regard for personal space, how he’d just tried to impress him with bird facts and riddles. He remembered waking up in his bed wearing Ed’s pajamas that were too big on him, remembered listening to him play piano for him, and nights of takeout and talking about anything really. He remembered his anxious demeanor mixed with his confidence when they worked together politically, remembered his cold gaze on the docks, remembered the odd hint of sadness in his eyes a month later when they met again. Every time he saw Ed he felt like he changed, turned into another person, and he wasn’t sure which one he loved or didn’t.

“That makes two of us. I’m sorry about…Well I’m sorry about a few things actually, but what happened at the bank heist. I shouldn’t have screwed you over like that.”

Oswald shrugged. “I’m used to it, especially when it comes to you.”

“I don’t get why you brought me back to life, seems like a waste of time and resources to me.”

“I understand it, but I still do get rather exhausted telling you so many times why I do a lot of the things I do when it comes to you. Despite what an incredible ass you’ve been and the things you’ve done to me I’m still in love with you.”

Ed looked over at him studying his face as if searching for the lie or hidden message or maybe even the hook of ‘just as a friend’.

“Before you panic, no I don’t expect you to love me back, and if you wanted to go out and find Thompkins or Hell even Barbara Kean and date them….I don’t care, I’m not going to screw any of your relationships up.” 

There was still a part of himself deep down that loathed he’d had Isabella killed, in the scheme of things it had been immature and irrational, but his thing for so long had been killing spur of the moment, rarely acting with a lot of forethought. 

“Can I tell you something?” Ed quietly asked.

Oswald looked over at him noticing how he now stared down at the floor, he nervously fidgeted with his fingers.

“Sure”

“When, I mean….The docks and even after that I-I love you.” 

The words caught him by surprise. Ed continued to stare down at the floor.

“If you’re messing with me you know I might actually kill you.”

Ed smiled, he looked at him this time. “I’m not, I really do love you. Truthfully that scares me, I think you could do much better than me, and I’d sort of hoped you would just leave me dead and move on from that chapter in your life.”

Cautiously Oswald reached his hand up to touch his fingers against Ed’s cheek. He was relieved when his hand wasn’t smacked away.

“I felt you deserved another chance at being alive….and I’m incredibly selfish and couldn’t’ really stand the thought of you just being gone.” 

It was true, the thought had scared him when he’d found Ed’s corpse. Realizing how permanent death could be, thinking about how eerie, quiet, and just bleak things would be if he didn’t have him around whether it was on good terms or bad.

“I should probably actually thank you for bringing me back.”

“Perhaps…Dinner sometime, you still owe me for that.” He said smiling softly.

Ed leaned forward pressing a kiss against his forehead. Oswald closed his eyes sighing at the feeling of soft warm lips against his skin. 

“You’re right, I can cook for us tonight.”

“Th-that would be nice….Hey could you, could you say it again.”

He felt stupid for asking, for being so desperate to hear those words again, but he just needed to know the feeling was real.

Ed placed a hand against his cheek, thumb stroking against his skin as he looked into his eyes. “I love you.”


End file.
